TECHNIQUE IN GROUP WORK: "LETTER IN A BOTTLE"

2024 Author: Harry Day | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 15:43

The phenomenon of a message in a bottle has been known since ancient times. A message in a bottle or bottle mail is a very ancient way of sending messages to the addressee. This was the first time this communication method was used for scientific purposes. The myth says that the Greek philosopher Theophrastus around 310 BC. threw several sealed vessels with notes behind Gibraltar to prove that the water in the Mediterranean Sea comes from the Atlantic Ocean. A few months later, one of the vessels was found in Sicily. Since then, history has described many cases of using bottle mail.

This phenomenon did not go unnoticed in literature: in Jules Verne's novel "Children of Captain Grant", the heroes find a bottle inside a shark asking for help; one of the first stories by Edgar Poe is titled Manuscript Found in a Bottle; in Howard Lovecraft's children's story "The Little Glass Bottle", the characters find a mysterious message in a bottle floating in the sea.

In group psychological work, the phenomenon of a message in a bottle can also be used. We are all, to some extent, lonely Robinsons, and sometimes, in difficult periods of life, when a person asks for psychological help, he really feels far from the “mainland”. Being on a deserted island makes you tremble and hope that a passing ship will notice a lonely inhabitant of the island. In order to have even the slightest chance of returning to human society, signals should be given: burn fires, build eye-catching towers and throw a bottle with a message.

This exercise may be suggested at the first meeting of the group. Usually, the group leaders ask questions about what brought a person to the group, what expectations the person associates with their participation in group work, etc. Instead (or together) with such questions, the leader can suggest the participants to throw a bottle with a message into the “ocean”. There are two options for working.

In the first case, the participants are invited to create a vessel with their own hands in which the letter will be placed. In the second case, the presenter independently prepares the required number of vessels in which the participants will place their messages. The first option for completing the assignment is undoubtedly more spectacular and more effective: a person on a "desert island" has to think about which vessel will be more stable in the environment of water, will be able to retain its shape and attract the attention of a random oncoming, how and from what it is better to make it. Thus, already in the process of creating a vessel, we can see the degree of persistence and responsibility of a person who has applied for psychological help. In addition, by creating a vessel, a person can realize what actions in real life he lacks in order to inform others about his needs and his existence, to understand what he can do to improve those aspects of his life that do not satisfy him.

The second option is simpler, however, it takes less time. Once the messages have been written, the participants select a vessel and extract the message from it. The process of extracting the information contained in the letter is interesting, as it is perceived by the group and by "Robinson" himself. This sets the dynamics of group work and helps to overcome the primary closeness of the group members.

Throw messages into the ocean of life and hope they end up in the right hands.